‘Can’t work without AI’: Employees fear rising overreliance, skill-loss

About 50% of the 2,500 workers surveyed said they depend too much on artificial intelligence (AI) tools at work, according to a new report by cloud communications and IT company GoTo, highlighting growing concerns over AI overreliance, affecting employee confidence, skills and decision-making.

The ‘Pulse of Work 2026’ report said that the workers “feel they can’t function without it.” Nearly four in 10 workers said overusing AI was making them less intelligent.

Younger workers most concerned


The report found younger workers were more likely to feel the negative effects of AI dependence. Nearly half of Gen Z respondents, or 46%, said relying too much on AI was making them less intelligent.

Pressure to use AI at work also appears to be increasing. Around 60% of employees said they felt expected to use AI tools to improve productivity. However, about 69% said they were not very familiar with how AI could be applied practically in their role, while 80% believed they were not using AI to its full potential.

AI misuse and “workslop” rising

The report highlighted growing concerns around the misuse of AI in workplaces. Around 70% of employees admitted to using AI for sensitive or high-stakes tasks, up sharply from 54% last year.

These included legal or compliance work, emotionally sensitive tasks, safety-related work, strategic decisions and handling confidential information.

Unchecked AI-generated content is also creating additional work for employees. Around 43% of respondents said they had used AI-generated material despite suspecting it contained errors or false information.

Most workers surveyed, about 77%, said AI-generated work often took longer to review than human-produced work. Around 66% said reviewing low-quality AI-generated content, described in the report as “workslop”, was creating more work for them.

AI training and policies

The study found many organisations still lacked clear AI policies and training programmes. Only 44% of IT leaders said their company even had an AI policy in place.

Even where policies existed, around 80% of employees and 60% of IT leaders said workers were not being properly trained to use AI tools responsibly.

“The opportunity in front of us with AI is enormous. Employees are spending an estimated 2.6 hours every day on tasks that AI could handle, and in the US alone, that translates to more than $2.9 trillion in potential efficiency gains annually,” said Rich Veldran, CEO of GoTo.

“Responsible AI use is about having the right tools and supporting the people who use them,” said Dan Schawbel, managing partner at research firm Workplace Intelligence, which partnered with GoTo on the report. “Our research highlights the importance of equipping employees with the skills, policies, and guidance they need to work alongside AI effectively.”